Governor signs Diamond bill reintroducing industrial hemp

A historic piece of legislation signed by Governor Tom Wolf was jump-started by a Lebanon politician. The Pennsylvania Governor Wednesday signed legislation sponsored by Rep. Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon) to re-introduce the cultivation of industrial hemp in controlled studies.

House Bill 967, now Act 92 of 2016, allows for properly registered individuals to grow, cultivate, and/or market industrial hemp within the confines of the Agricultural Act of 2014. Agencies, colleges and universities are now able to grow industrial hemp for research purposes. The new law creates the Hemp Research Board, which is now responsible for developing regulations, applications for registration, inspections, a database of registered persons, registration fees and guidelines for labeling and testing. The move could also result in billions in new agricultural revenue for Pennsylvania farmers.

Diamond hailed the new law as a boom to the state economy and a triumph more than 80 years of misinformation about the plant.

"This is a great day for Pennsylvania farmers and our state's economy," Diamond said in a news release. "Industrial hemp is safely grown worldwide and used in a wide variety of consumer products, from automobile dashboards to clothing. It is not a drug and does not produce a high. Rather, it is an environmentally friendly, durable fiber with high-profit margins."

Industrial hemp had been misidentified as a drug by overzealous federal authorities in the 1930s. Though biologically similar to the marijuana plant, it does not contain intoxicating levels of THC. After numerous studies demonstrated the safety of industrial hemp, and to remedy the growing trade imbalance occurring from the importation of hemp-containing merchandise, the 2014 federal Farm Bill allowed industrial hemp to be grown in pilot programs reserved for universities and state departments of agriculture. Diamond's bill brings Pennsylvania law into line with new federal guidelines, allowing the state to reap the economic benefits as restrictions are further lifted.